MAL Ep. 1
During this rather short intro session, the group met some new allies, learned of some troubling curses afflicting several party members and NPCs, heard the news of a suspicious murder, and discussed events with a number of NPCs in town. Disclaimer: There were certainly many other details you discovered during the 2.5-hour session beyond those I review in this short recap, and some of them may prove to be significant. Feel free to chime in with additions, with or without me CC'd. This is just a list of some of the important highlights: 1) Red and Aler told the group that they have been afflicted with extraplanar curses. Red's prevents rain from falling within a one-mile radius of her, while Aler's has afflicted him with a peculiar ghostly imp-like creature that sits on his shoulder, cannot be dislodged, and seems impervious to all damage. It also screeches intermittently in a language none of you understand (Abyssal, Auran, and Fey have all been ruled out.) Jon replied by saying that he too has been cursed, in his case he seems to be losing his memory (and has consequently been carrying around a journal in which he jots down quest information to the best of his ability.) Adriel said that although she has not noticed a curse upon herself, she has been receiving threatening dreams from Chavalk, which she believes may be related. 2) Red recalled that during their fight with Arthon, Chavalk yelled at Adriel for doing something to prevent him from gating into the combat. 3) The party met three new allies: Khirg, a gnoll champion who the Druid leader had sent with Red and Aler to protect them while they investigated their curses; Avery (aka Advanced Umbral Vanguard 3,) a warforged living construct who arrived in town to learn about the Dreamscape and was told by townsfolk that Jon the bard could tell him the whole story; and Zadkiel, a priest of Altaris and close associate of Sister Astilla, who originally came to town to help with the shiver withdrawal situation but is now focused on clearing Petros' name of the crime he believes he has been falsely accused of. 4) That crime is the murder of Magistrate Tell. None of the information you have received has been first-hand, but the murder is said to have occurred last night and to have been discovered by his wife Celia the following morning, he is rumored to have been stabbed in his own house, he is rumored to have been depressed and behaving erratically since the collapse of the Dreamscape, his wife apparently sent their sons to visit their grandmother in Ruastin for the weekend "to give him some space," and he is rumored to be having an affair with his secretary. (Jon's memory worked on this one, remembering having heard this rumor during the last adventure thread: the secretary's name is Carrie.) 5) Petros Alaric, the High Seeker of Fantarin, has been arrested for the crime. Captain Black gave you a few pieces of direct information about this: that a paladin witnessed Petros leaving Tell's house last night shortly after the murder would have occurred, and that they subsequently searched Petros' apartments and found the murder weapon. She was unable to divulge further details. The party identified the paladin, Travis, who confirmed what he had seen and added that the streetlamp was on and Petros' face was uncovered, and that his house is directly down the street from the Paladin's headquarters where there is always a guard marching outside even late at night ("it's a guild ritual.") He also stated that Petros had passed a Zone of Truth spell, but that he knows it is possible for people with a strong will or magical assistance to subvert that spell. Zadkiel avows that Astilla used a Commune spell to contact an angel of Altaris, who stated that Petros had NOT killed Tell. 6) The party found Morgana and Barris, both of whom had recently shuttered their businesses due to having been cursed. Morgana's curse prevents her from lucid dreaming, and Barris' causes magical items he creates to have random failure rates. Barris believes his curse to be Abyssal in nature. The party deduced that the cursed individuals all seem to be the ones who went to the Dreamscape-- a number that included Petros. After checking with the paladins, they determined that the paladins who went to the Dreamscape but were not present in the final fight with Arthon were not cursed, so they have now narrowed it down to people who were present in that final fight-- a number that also included Petros. Morgana offered to send her pseudodragon Torria along with the party, since it has magical telepathy which the party thinks can keep Aler's poltergeist from spying on him. 7) Magistrate Tell was a ducal appointee, so the Emissary's ducal guards have apparently gotten immediately and strongly involved in this case, though you haven't seen any of them yet. Assassinating a magistrate appointed by the Duke is considered treason against the duchy as well as murder. Petros is being held in the jailhouse and you are not allowed to visit him. Jon asked whether he had the right to be visited by an attorney and Black said no. 8) The party realized that Magistrate Tell had failed to give them a certificate along with the 5000 gp reward he gave them last adventure-- something that stunned Captain Black as completely out of character for him to forget to do. She said she would check to see what paperwork he had filed on their end, since if he took the money out of payroll instead of classifying it as a citizen reward, she could justify you as pre-existing police specialists hired by the city, which might give you more security clearance. 9) The party encountered Aluon's weasel in the police station, where the desk sergeant explained that he had been adopted as a mascot a week ago. Red used Speak With Animals on the weasel, learning that as a sorcerer's familiar, he actually has a high intelligence, that he prefers not to use a name as he feels it makes him susceptible to demons, that he does not understand human languages but can sometimes assess what's going on when they interact with each other anyway through body language, pheromones, etc. He claims that Aler's poltergeist "doesn't smell like a demon," although you don't know how reliable that assessment it. The weasel agreed to come along with the party for the time being, although the Speak With Animals spell has since run out. 10) The party has not yet learned what, if any, curse has befallen their former comrades Aluon and Skenebrax. 11) The paladins summoned the high priest of Tallian to check their unit for curses. He seemed to the party to be in a great hurry to return to his temple, but did perform the spell, detecting no curses on the paladins but definite extraplanar curses on Red, Aler, Jon, and Adriel. He then left immediately. The paladins did not have any ideas about how to remove extraplanar curses (they're effectively soldiers, not magic-users.) However, the paladin duty commander used her aura sense to scan Aler's poltergeist for Abyssal energy. She reported that the poltergeist had no aura at ALL, leading Aler to wonder whether it ould be illusory. However, the paladin did note a faint Abyssal reading on Aler himself, and a STRONG Abyssal aura around Adriel. The paladins were very concerned about this and conferred quietly amongst themselves, but did not prevent Adriel from leaving with the rest of the group. 12) The party went back to Seven's bookshop to have her take a picture of the poltergeist. As previously mentioned, the picture resulted in a strange white "hot spot" in the image where the creature should have been. The picture of Adriel came out normal. --Laura